I wa listening to a podcast yesterday where the topic was exploring personality archetypes and the roles people create for themselves.
That got me thinking, does arise in cosplay? Do we create archetypes for ourselves when cosplay? How do those roles differ from our day to day personalities?
Do you become the Artist, creating something to showcase your talent? Maybe you strive to become a Mona Lisa, something to be admired for beauty. How about a foundation, not really noticeable on your own, but something larger (like a group) would be incomplete without you.
So tell me, fellow members of this forum, how would you describe your cosplay arechetype? There is no limit to how you choose to describe yourself, nor are there any wrong answers. I listed those above as examples to get you thinking.
As for me, I tend to consider myself The Ham. Many of my favorite costumes tend to be the ones where either in character or out of character, I get to be silly and make people laugh, even if it's just while I pose for a picture.
Captain Hammer or Groose: I become the guy who's in love with himself and thinks he's the hero of the story.
Scout Trooper: Who doesn't enjoy watching the bad guys from Star Wars doing something silly?
Infinity Gauntlet: Walking around like an average guy, but casually wielding the most powerful item in the cosmos gets some great looks from those in the know.

I think for me I cosplay to show off my craft, so perhaps I would view myself as a sculpture of sorts? Or a living image? I don't tend to roleplay my characters on the con floor, but I do try to evoke their personality when posing. More often though I tend to just showcase the costume in some generic way (gee I need to work on that!). I have on occasion acted as "the foundation" in order to help friends realize a vision, but I admittedly much prefer to be more front and center in such situations (who doesn't?). When I fall somewhere in-between I'm usually the "cute one"/"little sister figure" or the "white mage" *points at title...* and of course if there's any singer in the group that one will be me! LOL

I don't introduce many cosplays a year (1-2 usually), but when I do, I usually go for less-cosplayed characters of well-known big shows (e.g. Naruto, Bleach, One Piece) or characters with props (swords, guns, whatever, the bigger the better). I chose to go these routes because I want to stand out from the other characters of the show (no need to be the 37th Ichigo or 13th Luffy), so for example, a couple of cosplays I have are Uryu Ishida and Chopper.
I also rather go for characters with something to have in my hand because I like something to carry out, look cool, and makes me feel 'naked' without them.